1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-series battery control system that controls a plurality of serially connected battery cells.
2. Description of Related Art
A battery control system typically comprises a battery controller and a plurality of integrated circuits engaged in operation in response to commands issued from the battery controller.
The integrated circuits transmit to the battery controller information such as information indicating the voltages at the individual cells, measured based upon transmission information provided by the battery controller. At this time, each integrated circuit needs to be driven in an optimal manner based upon information obtained through data exchange with the battery controller. For this reason, the integrated circuits each need to assume a pre-assigned address.
The addresses of the individual integrated circuits may be set as disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 2003-209932 by leading out wirings from a predetermined number of terminals (address-setting terminals) at each integrated circuit and inputting signals via these wirings so as to distinguish the particular integrated circuit from other integrated circuits.
However, the integrated circuits in such a battery control system are bound to be large in size and costly since the integrated circuits need to include the setting terminals, to be used for purposes of address setting and the wirings through which signals are input to the setting terminals.